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Ladies (kinda/sorta) Indian

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Hi Mike,

I'm 95% certain that it's a Westfield built bike, after 30 minutes of educating myself on the CABE. (95%, because I am not an expert!).

Reasons:

As I mentioned previously, the serial looks Westfield style, and starts with a C, which would be Westfield code for 1925, and which is feasible for this frame.

I looked for other 1925 Westfield BB serial stampings to compare. I could only find one battered example, but I think it's good enough to demonstrate that the C, 1 and 7 are the same font. End of Post 2 here:


From 1923 Westfield built Indian bicycles officially (and probably as a sub contractor from 1916 - 22).

Posts 6-17 of the link below (and probably others) are quite informative on the history, and also address the dropouts on your bike, which are Indian like, but would also appear on Westfields of the period.


I hope this helps,

Best Regards,

Adrian
 
So was Al-Ray a jobber? I had believed that those rounded fork crowns may have been 1920’s Snyder products; or maybe just a girls.
 
So was Al-Ray a jobber? I had believed that those rounded fork crowns may have been 1920’s Snyder products; or maybe just a girls.
The forks are what's throwing me off.


Rear forkends too...

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1589586745791.png
 
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Hi Mike,

I was just dating someone else's bicycle (1923 Westfield), and ran across the Indian catalogue from 1923, a couple of years before your bike.


The Westfield made frame of yours appears to be similar to the Indian Model I 34 there. Interestingly, the Womens bikes seem to have a different chainwheel to the Mens, and the chainwheel on yours seems to be the mens version.

I'm pretty sure that when companies like A.L. Ray C°; ordered these bikes from Westfield, it was in fairly small batches, so they could specify what they wanted to make it 'their' bike, but also, if Westfield had surplus parts on the shelf, it was a way of selling them to clear the stock. After all, who knew that in 100 years this would be of interest to anyone?

I hope this helps,

Best Regards,

Adrian
 
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